Jack: Book 3 in the Trilogy

Bijagos Islands, Bissau Guinea Part 21

                                                                         Map from C.I.A. Factbook

About half of the darkies aboard were from Guinea Bissau, the separate mid-African coastal country north of Guinea and a major slave trading stop in the mid 19th Century. Most of the remaining people were from Senegal, a coastal country north of Guinea Bissau. Jack called another meeting topside. He had an idea that he said might be the safest plan for the landing of the darkies in Guinea. He had seen on the map in the cabin an archipelago outside mainland Guinea Bissau - I checked it and agreed it was the safest bet for a landing. It was a group of islands that was part of Guinea Bissau. All the Africans with few exceptions had heard of these islands and some Guinea and Guinea Bissau natives had been there. 

Speaking in broken Portuguese, a darkie who said his name was Jose Varcas, said there were very few people on the islands and no ships made scheduled stops. He agreed that any of those islands would be a perfect landing place, and added that the people could build shelters and fish, and dig for clams and other shellfish while figuring out how to get back home which, by boat, would be a relatively easy sail and not too far away. They would need to build boats, he said, or at least the long flat ocean-going canoes that some mainland fisherman used. If given money, gold, he said, they likely could buy boats from the locals and bribe people on the mainland if need be. Jack said there would be plenty of gold for them to get a new start as well as a large store of provisions including most of our fresh water as we did not know what fresh water reservoirs would be on the islands. We were going to give them large iron pots to store water and to cook. Jack was clear that we should give away most of our supplies including weapons to give the darkies the best possible chances at survival.

Jack asked for a show of hands as to who wanted to land in the Bijagos Islands. It was unanimous except for ten darkies this time, who said they wanted to go back with us. 

This time, Jack told me and the girls that he would not let Pendleton in on the plan for the island drop in case our ship was captured on the return to Jamaica and word somehow got out that our darkies didn't go to Guinea after all, but instead started a temporary community in Bijagos Islands. Some said they might want to stay and later try to get to the coast to bring their families there. Others thought they might stay permanently and create an 'underground' settlement to where escaped slaves could be taken. 

At nine-hundred hours (9 AM) the next day, we anchored between three islands in the archipelago. There was no evidence of any residents or people on the shores - just pristine little islands where we were fairly sure that our friends - we had surely become friends by now - could thrive and be safe and make plans for their futures.